Friday, January 28, 2011

Thinking Waaay Outside The Bun

As anyone who has spent time on the other side of a fast food counter knows, the ingredients that go into burgers, fries, chicken nuggets and such can be pretty scary. Michael Pollan said as much in his marvelously instructive Omnivore's Dilemma, but now comes what may be the hands down grossest substitution for the real thing: Taco Bell's Taco Meat Filling, which purports to be beef but contains a mere 36 percent of the real thing.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hello Shaun

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of factory food, junk food, or Taco Bell in particular, but most of the stuff on that list is either flavorings, fillers (think bangers), or analogues of more familiar stuff. The analogues picked because they turn rancid more slowly.

Disgusting as it sounds, the Taco Bell mix is probably healthier than the real thing would be.

About Me

Shaun Mullen was born to blog. It just took a few years for the medium to catch up to the messenger. Over a long career with newspapers, this award-winning editor and reporter covered the Vietnam War, O.J. Simpson trials, Clinton impeachment circus and coming of Osama bin Laden, among many other big stories. Mullen was a five-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and has covered 12 presidential campaigns. He is the author of "The Bottom of the Fox: A True Story of Love, Devotion & Cold-Blooded Murder" (2010) and "There's A House In The Land: A Tale of the 1970s" (2014). Both books are available for sale online in trade paperback and Kindle editions. Much of Mullen's work is archived and can be accessed online in the Shaun D. Mullen Journalism Papers in Special Collections at the University of Delaware Library.